Star Wars Episode VII: Will Harrison Ford’s injury delay filming?

Rumours have been floating around, first posted by UK website Jedi News, that Harrison Ford’s injury is worse than first reported, to the extent that his return to the film could be six months, possibly a lot longer.

Word of an emergency meeting at Pinewood Studios this morning reached Star Wars fandom, with the upshot being that with Ford returning to the States to convalesce, the film could have little option but to either cease production, rewrite the script to remove Ford from the film altogether or at the very least make significant changes to accommodate Ford’s recovery schedule.

If true – and as ever, until confirmed by Lucasfilm, Bad Robot or Disney this is merely a rumour – it could deal a crushing blow to the production. Ford is thought to be THE lead actor of the movie, with the plot centered around him. Beyond that little is known, but if it is the case then there is some heavy work to be done to keep the huge production rolling along.

Either way, this will be a costly delay for Disney. Deals are signed, actor’s timeframes are set and crew members are in place. To delay the production long enough for Ford to heal would be a costly exercise. Of course, all productions have insurance policies in place to cover themselves for eventualities similar to this but nevertheless, this is going to be a problem.

Now thoughts turn to the future release date of the film. With December 2015 looking less likely, the iconic release month of May becomes a potential target date. May 6 2016 sees the release of the third Captain America film from Marvel Studios (now a part of Disney), following on from the $700+ million haul of The Winter Soldier.

Could we be seeing a mega blockbuster month where a major Marvel film, which could conceivably pull in a billion dollars, is released in the same month as Episode VII? Anything is possible in Hollywood, especially when you consider that most major films are ‘front loaded’, pulling in the majority of their haul in the first few weeks. But it’s far more likely that Episode VII – if it changes at all – would move to the summer months, most likely July.

That said, there could be a longer wait, meaning one of the stand-alone movies could be released first. With Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank already announced, could Disney be brave and make their first Star Wars release a non-saga episode? Sets are built, crew is in place and from the outside it looks a lot like a ‘Harry Potter situation’, where these films could be in almost constant pre-production, production and post-production for anything up to and beyond a decade. If that’s the case, Lucasfilm, Disney and Bad Robot will need to make some fast decisions on what to do next.

As always, there is another way. The original script, by Michael Arndt, focused on the younger characters, leaving Luke, Leia and Han in the background (much like the older characters of the previous two trilogies). A rewrite of that script (which we understand was worked up by Arndt and George Lucas, and rewritten by J.J.Abrams) could be a way through the problem of Ford being absent for most of Episode VII.

As it stands that’s all supposition. Officially, right now we will be seeing Star Wars Episode VII in theatres worldwide on December 18 2015. Until further notice that is.

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